A4D-2 ( A-4B ) - VA-36 Roadrunners - USS Saratoga 1959 -60 - mid61 - 2 questions about their actual painting scheme .

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Hello all !

 

I've been collecting documents about the A4D-2 from VA-36 for several months to start another Haseg Skyhawk .

And ... despite some pictures and  profile available on the Net depicting thoses scooters with :

 

- black anti glare painting on the nose 

- a toon roadrunner on intakes ,

 

it's seems that this is wrong ( pictures seem to have been photoshoped , mixing scheme with later A-4C aircrafts ) .

 

I came to the conclusion that these aircrafts had all early B scooters caracteristics and in particular : medium gray anti glare painting and no roadrunner on intakes .

 

If someone has accurate infos about those VA-36 early scooters thank you to provide any !

 

I've always been blown out by the kwowledge shared on BM and I sincerely hope that some among you fellow modellers will confirm my analysis or , why not , provide the picture that will unconfirm it .

 

Best Regards .

Remy

 

And ... be sure that even as a french citizen I deeply miss your formidable Queen Elizabeth II who was a truly friend of France .

[Creepy Pete]

Here is a pair of A4D-2's with roadrunners on the intakes. The anti glare panel is harder to confirm.

https://www.skyhawk.org/sites/default/files/images-buno-142416-142953/142870-a4d-2-ddmmm61-va-36-ac-601.jpg

 

I've looked at the cruise books, but good pics are rare.

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32 minutes ago, Creepy Pete said:

Here is a pair of A4D-2's with roadrunners on the intakes. The anti glare panel is harder to confirm.

https://www.skyhawk.org/sites/default/files/images-buno-142416-142953/142870-a4d-2-ddmmm61-va-36-ac-601.jpg

 

I've looked at the cruise books, but good pics are rare.

 

 

Hello and thanks for searching  , unfortunatelly this is the picture which was photoshoped ...

[Steve McArthur]

@basket I'm not sure why you decided that photo was photoshopped. Why would anyone bother and still end up with such a poor photo?  It looks like a bad scan of an old photo to me.  I spent some time looking at this and Superscale did a decal set that matches one of the planes in the photo you claim is "photoshopped".  It really wouldn't surprise me if the cartoon character was added to commemorate the A-4B before they swapped the B's for C's.  Thing is I haven't seen this style of the Roadrunner character on anything but B models.  When VA-36 got C models it doesn't look like it had a Roadrunner on the side initially and when it did appear it was a different style.  

 

The Saratoga cruise book for 60-61 cruise has one very poor photo that really looks like a A-4B with a black glare shield and if you zoom in there is something on the side of the plane that really looks like a Roadrunner to me.

 

 

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Thanks Steve for your reply  ! Much appreciated !

 

In fact I'm the happy owner of an example of the decal sheet 48-763 for my project ( and I'd love to have my " bravo" adorned with the roadrunner ).

 

To answer your question :

 

I have a downloaded example of the photo  in higher resolution , and it really seems that the areas in black such as antiglare , tactical codes , or even roundels were modified ( some pixel kind of thing around those areas and no trace of red rescue arrow ).

 

And,  I've have 2 good resolution pictures of A4D-2  of VA-36 circa 60/61  with no road runner and grey antiglare panel .

 

It's seems roadrunner first appears on charlie models while VA-36 was on the Big E .

 

This said ... the picture attached to your post confuses me  .... again !  and maybe your supposition may be right regarding a commemorative decoration before switching to the C .

 

Does anyone else can help ????

[Julien]

You say its photoshopped but it does not look so, but if you have convinced yourself of that so be it.

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5 hours ago, Julien said:

You say its photoshopped but it does not look so, but if you have convinced yourself of that so be it.

I'm convinced , but it may only be a way, not to produce a fake ( thinking about it , it's seems a non sense ) but just to get a cleaner , more readable picture . 

 

Thanks Julien . 

[Robert]

There is another picture of the 2 VA-36 A-4Bs  in the Steve Ginter's book Naval Fighters No49 credited to the USN. The picture shows both aircraft in a different position to each other, black anti-glare and Roadrunner on the intake side.

 

Regards

Robert

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Thanks very much Robert .

 

Extra help is still required , if possible .

 

Regards to all .

 

Remy

 

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Hi all !

Some updates :

Following Robert's infos ( thanks again for your proposal mate ) , I finally realized that I actually had the book , this one :

 

 

 

And rediscovered on page 106 a second photograph that I'd always considered the same as the one quoted above on the second post . But it was not !!!

It's another picture taken during the same flight .

So , my problem is solved , my A4D-2 will have a black antiglare panel and will be adorned with the roadrunner .

 

Thanks to everybody for the help provided , once again , you fellow BM modellers are top notch !

 

Regards,

Remy